bloody stupid question with an obvious answer

[forest]

Looking through our self sufficient in vegetables thread make me wonder what everyone's goals are for their vegetables.

That might seem like a bloody stupid question with an obvious answer but my goal is to never have to buy fruit or vegetables again. I want to eat organic food and as it's so expensive, I have to grow my own. I also want to eat solely from my backyard as many nights as I can. We don't eat meat so we've developed a wide range of recipes from the backyard produce. A friend of mine has a vegie patch and he just wants to grow unusual vegetables that he can't buy in the shops.

Did you have a specific goal in mind when you planted your vegetables and fruit?

[baldcat]

My main goal is to provide enough vegies, to supply my family (2 of us at the moment) and enogh to trade with others to get differnet sorts.. A group of us are all having a go and growing different stuff, as so we don't have a huge amount of one thing and nothing of another.

So I have about 6 differnet vegies growing and my 3 other friends have different vegies growing.. We then all trade. Easy, and it doesn't take up much of your time either.

[ejanea]

My goal in planting vegetables (and fruit) was originally to reduce my overheads.

I live on a very limited income and I have found a few ways of increasing the "incomings" but it is necessary to reduce the "outgoings" also. When I looked at my assets (good health and a piece of land included) I decided that growing stuff would reduce the overheads.

In theory I knew about the advantages of an organic garden and diet and all of that, but now that I've seen the results, I have another goal..... improved health and wellbeing.

So now I have three goals....
reduced overheads,
improved health (including mental health) and wellbeing,
reduced impact on the planet.

[hedwig]

we're four, and as the children are small we have one income, we all eat a lot and cannot afford organic vegetables. I never bought supermarket vegetables at home, we went to the market. But when we moved to Brisbane I was very astonished that not every suburb has his weekly market (or twice or three times a week) and our suburb even has no greengrocer. Supermarket vegetables simply tastes horrible or does not taste at all. I think the main problem is that they are not as fresh as they are at the market.
The last year we lived in Athens and there were an extremely aundance of different vegetbles salads etc. all very fresh - not organic.
I did not think about growing vegetables at all, but we missed the taste, especially the taste of good salad(we stoped colmletely eating salad). I begun to grow and I like it a lot.
I think it is even much better than in the organic shop I pick one or two hours before eating.

[redorangenbrown]

Our goal is the same as yours Forest. Never having to buy fruit and veg again. The reason being because I love growing my own produce and wish to eat organically, seasonly and freshly. I'm a vegan so don't eat anything from an animal. Fruit and veg is all I eat. To be able to meet my own nutritional needs would be wonderfully fulfilling.

I am starting from scratch on 15 acres in Tyalgum. My partner and I live in a tin shed shaped like a barn, its really cool. I just needed a roof over my head at night while I spend the days growing stuff.

If the opportunity arose in the future to swap produce with other local growers or if I could sell some extra produce down at the local pub then that would be great, but really that buzz I get from eating something that I had a hand in growing is what I love.

[bazman]

When I grew up in New Zealand my Dad grew much of our own food, this saved us much money as 3 growing boys plus Mum and Dad could eat quite a lot, the food was always grown without chemicals as you didn't need to use them on a 1000m2 block, I loved the food from the garden and always enjoyed being outside, but Dad never passed much of his know how onto us. Well until now, now that I have my own place and developing gardens.

Dad grew up in Ireland on basic but productive land, many of the tips and tricks I read and have learnt through Permaculture are "what we used to do every day in Ireland" according to Dad.

When I moved away from home and Dads garden at a young age I missed the many wonderful foods he used to grow, so now i'm just following in his foot steps and growing my own food the right way.

All of my family now lifes close by including Mum and Dad and my two older brothers, Dad still grows a little but not much on his small urban block, but they now enjoy fresh food from my place as does my brothers and friends who come to visit.

My Young cousin (14) works for me on sundays and he loves it out here, he lives in an urban area, i'm teaching him what I know, as it develops, we have planted many trees together and layed out much garden bed.

I see this wonderful place as more than a food production area I see it as a place where my family and friends can come and enjoy real food and a positive lifestlye now and in the future.

They also pay me for any produce they take, well Mum and Dad do, my brothers still have a little to learn when it comes to gave and take, but I won't go into that here ;-)

I intend to grow as much as I can in my 2000m2 food growing area, if we don't need to buy vegis great, it can't happen soon enough.

Dad drops by each week to tell me where i'm going wrong, which is always good for debate :D , he also grabs the snippers so he can prune anything he wants too. I always enjoy this time with Dad as he is now teaching me his old skills.

Mum's also great as she takes things like excess locuts and turns them into wonderful jams, she has time on her hands and takes a few jars as payment for the fruit.

[forest]

I love this thread. It shows me that we are all trying to do our own thing on our patch of land. How wonderful is that!

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

Please post more to this thread. I want to know everyone's story. :)

[Cornonthecob]

I want to be able to grow all the fruit and vegetables we need. Any excess will either be sold at market or traded via LETS/Friends. Also want to produce all our own poultry (chooks ((we love chicken! lol)) duck and quail), all our fish, and (thanks for reminding me earthbound) snails. Was going to breed them...will now share them with the ducks/fish.

I'd like to contact the local community groups and see if they have a need for fruit/vege's...is always someone in need.

Later on down the track...my own olive oil...wheat, rice, would love to breed frogs (frog legs) but have had no real luck finding any info on that. We don't drink milk so dairy products aren't a real concern...maybe barter for cheese.

Oh! and find someone to buy my lychee's!

:)

[Tamandco]

To save money!

[HoneydaleFarm]

well just to show you I am a nutter afterall :? ...ever since I was very little (under 4) I have had night terrors about the world ending and having to survive the old ways (no analysis needed REALLY :P ), so this fear has driven me through my life to learn new skills (I have stripped down an engine of a VB commodore and rebuilt it and put it back in(not bad for chickie babe) ...and even had "that part" left over)...

but when I got VERY sick from toxicity overload (was in and out of hospital for months getting tests done for all kinds of weird diseases...) I HAD to go through a major detox and go totally organic for food and lifestyle to heal myself. So now whilst I am back in the mainstream I guess, I am moving my whole family into a more natural lifestyle as I want my daughter to be healthy and know a few things

1) how much effort and value goes into growing good food
2) what impact we can make personally on the environment, both good and bad, so she will at least think about things as she gets older instead of being too detatched from it all
3) what satisfaction comes from selling or giving away something you have produced/made
4) what influence we can have over people learning to do good things (we have inspired a number of city slickers to start growing their own veg by giving them produce or helping them set up their first no-dig gardens!!)

Saving money is a bonus (when it eventually happens-just thinking of my 4 x $5 chooks that will cost me $50 in fuel to get them :lol: )...but for me it is a connectivity issue...being connected to the environment, to myself and to others in a community...

[Franceyne]

Hey there Forest,

I have two goal with and for my food plants I think...

I have always grown what veggies I could (in rental and share households) and never really questioned the why of it - so I suppose my first goal is enjoyment and fulfilment - I love to see my little seeds germinate and those seedlings grow into strong healthy plants. I get excited at the first flowers and the first fruits or tubers - you can imagine what I'm like when I serve up a meal that is made totally from the contents of our garden :lol: My Glenn thinks I'm part Hobbit - but I don't have hairy feet and I'm too tall, just... :wink:

My second goal is tied up with responsibility and accountability - I know what resources have been used in the growing of my own food by my own hands, I know how (learning more each day though) to feed myself, my partner and our lambs 8) I am (partially) responsible for our own food (not self sufficient yet...), we are not happy relying on modern convenience and 'modern' farming methods - we want to be as independent as possible from mainstream western society and be more interactive and supportive of our local networks and community. Growing my own food allows me to achieve this in a very specific manner.

Cheers,
Fran.

[Penny]

I want to be able to provide myself and my family with food I know is healthy and safe. To get out of the rat race and have time to enjoy the beauty around me, but most of all to try to make a difference in the way the earth is viewed. That is that it is not something to be exploited but that we need to put back as much or more than we take.

[Tamandco]

:lol: :lol: :lol: I gave the reason 'to save money' and that was my primary reason. Since starting to grow my own vegies back when were bought our old place 8 years ago, I've come to appreciate what you can achieve and control in your own back yard, as opposed to how we're dictated to as consumers.

The more I discover, the more upsetting I find it. Especially as fruit and veg in the supermarkets don't even have to be labelled, unlike packaged food. Our local greengrocer has a sign out the front to say that everything they sell is grown in Australia. That's another issue. I don't have anything against buying from OS, but I do when it involves storage of fresh fruit and veg for weeks or months on end, and unnecessarily transporting vast distances when we've got perfectly good produce grown locally. Plus it upsets me the markup the supermarkets place on produce. Just look at spuds, the farmers get some ridiculous amount per tonne, and we're paying x per kilo, a 300% markup.

Look, that's why I kept my previous answer short and sweet, start me off and I won't be able to stop. :oops:

[Meridian]

I just love to watch things grow. Saving money and being healthy are great sideeffects, but are secondary to the satisfaction I get from seeing stuff I planted grow.

[Tezza]

Ditto Meridian

Tezza